The Mystery of the Invisible Thief

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The Mystery of the Invisible Thief
TheMysteryOfTheInvisibleThief.jpg
First edition cover, art by Jean Main
Author Enid Blyton
IllustratorTreyer Evans
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series The Five Find-Outers
Genre Children's novel
Publisher Methuen
Publication date
1950
Preceded by The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat  
Followed by The Mystery of the Vanished Prince  

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief is a novel written by Enid Blyton. It is the eighth in the popular The Five Find-Outers children's mystery series. It was published in 1950. [1]

Contents

Plot

The Five Find-Outers are having a chance tea at a local gymkhana with Inspector Jenks and his goddaughter Hilary when a robbery occurs in a nearby large house. The mysterious robber disappears from the scene of the crime without a trace — as if he were invisible. The burgled house turns out to be Hilary's, so the children have the perfect excuse to investigate as they take the upset girl home.

The mysterious thief leaves only a few clues behind — enormous footprints, enormous glove prints, a strange criss-cross mark on the ground and two torn pieces of paper. The clues do not seem to make any sense. Of all the Peterswood villagers, only policeman Mr Goon and Colonel Cross have feet big enough to fit the footprints, and the thief cannot be either of them. The Five Find-Outers and dog decide to find the culprit before Mr Goon does.

Fatty uses his disguises to gather important information and in doing so outwits Mr Goon, especially when both go at the same time to see Colonel Cross to ask him about his large shoes. Mr Goon disguises himself three times but on each occasion the Find-Outers see through his disguises.

The thief strikes several times, once in Fatty's own shed and at Mrs Williams' house. On each occasion the same clues are found — but apparently nobody sees the thief.

Tired and frustrated at their lack of progress, Pip plays a practical joke on the others, wearing a pair of giant boots and leaving giant footprints for the others to find and again search in vain for the thief. When found out, the others are angry with Pip - until suddenly Fatty declares that Pip has solved the mystery. The actual thief had done all along what Pip did in jest. The thief is actually the baker, a small man, who used the boots to give the impression that he was a larger man, thus planting a false trail and allowing him to use escape options such as climbing out a window and down a drainpipe that would have been impossible for a man of the apparent size of the thief.

Characters

Note

A similar strategy to the one used in this book - a small man using larger shoes to appear bigger than he is- was used by Blyton's Secret Seven book, Shock for the Secret Seven , although there the criminal was a dog-napper rather than a thief.

Related Research Articles

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<i>The Mystery of the Secret Room</i>

The Mystery of the Secret Room (1945) is the third in the Five Find-Outers series of children's mystery novels by Enid Blyton. Illustrated by Joseph Abbey, it was published by Methuen.

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Five Go Down To The Sea is the twelfth novel in The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1953.

<i>The Mystery of the Strange Bundle</i>

The Mystery of the Strange Bundle is a children's mystery novel written by Enid Blyton and published in 1952. It is the tenth book of The Five Find-Outers series.

The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage is a 1954 children's mystery novel written by Enid Blyton and illustrated by Treyer Evans. It is the twelfth book in the Five Find-Outers series.

References

  1. "The Five Find-Outers Mystery Series by Enid Blyton". www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2023.